{"id":10168,"date":"2026-10-21T19:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T17:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/predication.net\/?p=10168"},"modified":"2026-10-21T19:54:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T17:54:11","slug":"thirtieth-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-a-mt-2234-40-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/predication.net\/?p=10168","title":{"rendered":"Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A Mt 22,34-40"},"content":{"rendered":"
It is indeed the pretext with which the expert in the Law comes to Jesus, just to test him. However, his question is important, still relevant, and often finds its way into our hearts and into the life of the Church: “Which is the greatest commandment?” (Mt 22:36). We too, immersed in the living river of tradition, ask ourselves the question: what is most important? What is the driving center? What matters most, to the point of inspiring everything? Jesus’ answer is clear: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself!” (Mt 22:37-39).<\/h2>\n
At this point in our journey, we\u2014Brother Cardinals, Brother Bishops, priests, and sisters and brothers\u2014must reflect on the foundational principle from which everything begins: love. To love God with all our life and to love our neighbor as ourselves is the core of everything. This is the core of everything, not our strategies, human calculations, or the world’s fashion trends, but love for God and neighbor: how do we translate this takeoff of love? I propose two verbs, two movements of the heart, on which I would like to reflect: to adore and to serve. We can love God through adoration and service.<\/h2>\n
The first verb is “to adore.” To love means to adore. Adoration is the first response that we can offer to the selfless and surprising love of God. Adoration is essential in the Church, especially now that we have lost the habit of it. Worship, in fact, means recognizing in faith that God alone is Lord and that our life, the journey of the Church, and the destiny of history depend on the tenderness of his love. He is the meaning of life.<\/h2>\n
When we worship him, we rediscover our freedom. That is why love for the Lord is often linked in Scripture to the fight against all idolatry. Those who worship God reject idols because while God liberates, idols enslave. They deceive us and never fulfill their promises because they are made by human hands. Sacred Scripture is strict against idolatry, because idols are the work of man and are manipulated by him, while God is always alive; He is here and everywhere: “He is not as I imagine him; He does not depend on what I expect of him; therefore, He can upset my expectations precisely because He is alive. “The proof that we do not always have the right idea of \u200b\u200bGod is that we are sometimes disappointed: I expected this, I imagined that God would behave like this, and instead I was wrong. This is how we return to the path of idolatry when we want the Lord to act according to the image we have created of him” (Card. M. Martini, Greats of the Bible). Spiritual Exercises with the Old Testament, Florence 2022, 826-827). It is a risk that we can always expose ourselves to thinking that we “control God,” closing his love into our schemes. Instead, his actions are always unpredictable; they transcend us, and therefore God’s work demands wonder and adoration. Wonder is critical!<\/h2>\n
We must always fight against idolatry, the worldly one that often stems from personal vanity, such as the desire for success, asserting oneself at all costs, and greed for money\u2014the devil comes through the pockets; let us not forget the allure of materialism\u2014and the charm of careerism; and it is also necessary to fight against idolatry that masquerades as spirituality: my religious ideas, my pastoral prowess… Let us be vigilant not to put ourselves at the center instead of Him. And let us return to adoration. Let us shepherds be the center: let us dedicate time every day to an intimate relationship with Jesus, the Good Shepherd, before the tabernacle. Let us adore. May the Church be an adorer: in every diocese, in every parish, in every community, let us adore the Lord! Because only in this way will we turn to Jesus, and not to ourselves; only through adoring silence will the word of God take up residence in our words; only before him will we be purified, transformed, and renewed by the fire of his Spirit. Brothers and sisters, let us adore the Lord Jesus!<\/h2>\n
The second verb is to serve. To love means to serve. In the greatest commandment, Christ unites God and neighbor so that they may never be separated. No true religious experience is deaf to the call of the world. Love for God requires commitment to caring for one’s neighbor; otherwise, there is a risk of Pharisaism. We can have many beautiful ideas for reforming the Church, but let us remember: to adore God and to love our brothers and sisters with his love, that is the great and constant reform. A Church that adores and serves must wash the feet of wounded humanity, accompany the fragile and rejected, and reach out to the poorest.\u00a0God has commanded this; we heard it in the first reading.<\/h2>\n
Brothers and sisters, I think of those who are victims of the atrocities of war, of the suffering of migrants, of the hidden pain of those who find themselves alone and in poverty, of those who are weighed down by the burden of life, of those who no longer have tears, of those who have no voice. And I think of how many times, behind beautiful words and convincing promises, forms of exploitation are encouraged, or nothing is done to prevent them. The exploitation of the weakest is a grave sin, a grave sin that destroys fraternity and devastates society. We, disciples of Jesus, aim to infuse the world with the Gospel’s leaven, prioritizing God and caring for the poor and weak.<\/h2>\n
This is the Church, brothers and sisters, of which we are called to dream: a Church that serves all, serves the least. A church that never demands a certificate of “good behavior,” but that welcomes, serves, loves and forgives. A church with open doors, a port of mercy. “A merciful man,” as St. John Chrysostom said, “is a port for those in need, welcoming and freeing all, whether criminals or good people, sheltering them in its cove.” When you see a suffering person in poverty, do not judge or question them; instead, help free them from their misfortune.<\/h2>\n
Brothers and sisters, the Synodal Assembly is coming to an end. In this “conversation of the Holy Spirit,” we experienced the Lord’s tender presence and discovered the beauty of fraternity. We listened to one another, and, above all, in the rich diversity of our stories and in our sensitivity, we listened to the Holy Spirit. Today we do not yet see the full fruit of this process, but we can look with foresight to the horizon that opens before us: the Lord will guide us and help us to be a more synodal and more missionary Church, one that worships God and serves the women and men of our time, and that goes forth to bring the comforting joy of the Gospel to all.<\/h2>\n
Brothers and sisters, I thank you for all that you have done during the Synod and continue to do. Thank you for the journey together, for listening and for dialogue. In addition to my thanks, I would like to express a wish for all of us: that we may grow in adoration of God and in service to our neighbor. To adore and to serve. May the Lord accompany us. And with joy we move forward!<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"